'Rocket Cos. Taps Former Thomson Reuters Exec To Lead Companywide AI Efforts; Shawn Malhotra Will Step Into A Newly Created CTO Role Overseeing AI And Tech Across Rocket's Portfolio, CEO Varun Krishna Said' - WSJ
Rocket Cos., whose portfolio includes Rocket Mortgage, Rocket Homes and Rocket Money, is creating a new C-level technology role, as the Detroit-based company looks to unify its AI push under one leader.
Shawn Malhotra, former head of engineering and product development at Thomson Reuters, has been tapped as chief technology officer and will begin Monday, reporting to Chief Executive Varun Krishna.
The move comes one month after Rocket Mortgage chief information officer Brian Woodring said he was leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.
Krishna says installing a companywide CTO will help the mortgage originator move faster on its goal of using AI to simplify and automate parts of the home-buying experience for consumers. Previously each division at Rocket Cos.had its own technology leadership, without one central person overseeing and unifying strategies.
Malhotra's remit will include data science, product engineering, technology operations and information security, the company said. But Krishna said the role's primary focus will be around AI.
"It's where we have allocated the majority of our engineering resources. It's also where we expect to drive the most differentiation," Krishna said. He added that being at the precipice of a profound AI-driven transformation "is what led to the creation of an elevated role, really focused on AI transformation, and also unifying our different technology organizations under one leader."
The company recently executed a similar move around marketing, hiring former Airbnb chief marketing officer Jonathan Mildenhall to unify and oversee marketing across all divisions.
Krishna said Malhotra was chosen for his skills in AI and engineering and his experience bringing organizations through technological transformations. During his seven years at Thomson Reuters, Malhotra held several technology roles, including CTO of Thomson Reuters' Corporate Technology business unit. Before that, he spent 12 years at Intel.
As companies across the board work to understand and leverage the opportunities associated with generative AI, CEOs increasingly are looking toward those who bridge technology and business leadership to lead efforts.
While CIOs typically play that role, assigning primary technology responsibilities to a CTO could reflect a commitment to integrate technology further into core operations and product, said Victor Janulaitis, CEO of consulting company Janco Associates. "CTOs tend to operate more at the board level and deal with the overall strategy of the business," he said.
Rocket last month started rolling out a new AI platform, Rocket Logic, to power better workflows for employees, such as summarizing and extracting data from documents, and better interactions for customers.
Krishna's own background is also in leading technology companies, having previously spent 20 years in product development and tech roles at companies including Intuit and PayPal before joining Rocket last year. Malhotra said he is excited to work under a leader who is savvy and passionate about tech.
"I think my first step is going to be to listen to the team, listen to customers and understand how to turn that momentum into even better results," Malhotra said.